Roses
by bitchy brunette
Summary: My first S/W! Yay! Will decides that a certain vampire needs a little cheering up.
1.

Title: Roses  
Summary: Spike gets a little present from an unlikely source.   
Archive: Want it?  
Disclaimer: Evil spawn of the devil, a.k.a. B/A hater Joss Whedon owns all.  
Comments: I am so happy that Angel is going to be back. Of course, he brings too many ppl in the finale, as in Faith, Oz, Kate, and a grip of others, but I've already said too much. Anyways, I know Joss is going to disappoint me, and there won't be any shippiness, but a girl can always dream, can't she? Let me have my fun, goddamn you!   
Dedication: To my sister, for making me continue. Thanks babes! (All S/W shippers have her to thank for this little story being posted.)   
Feedback: kimmie@quincymail.com  
  
  
  
  
  
Willow slid the door back quietly, slipping inside, looking around guiltily. It was late at night, so he wouldn't be there, but Will was nervous, and half expecting his blonde head to pop out at her, making accusations.  
Satisfied the crypt was empty; Willow set the white rose, half-closed on the table by the couch. She stood there for a minute, picturing his face. He'd probably think Buffy left it, but at least Spike would be happy for a moment.  
  
@----- *** @----- *** @-----  
  
Spike shut the door with a slam, drunkenly stumbling to his couch. He fumbled with the remote for a minute, before giving up and throwing the device as far as possible, managing to chuck it about two feet from his current position.   
He rolled over, squinting at the white blur, almost completely bloomed. He reached for it, missing a few times. Finally, Spike's fingers curled around the stem, and he brought the white rose to his face. He drifted off, thinking about white flowers and a certain redheaded Wicca.  
  
@----- *** @----- *** @-----  
  
Spike entered the dorm, looking about for her roommate. No one else seemed to be in the room, so he crept easily to her bedside, trailing one arm behind, leaving a path of petals from the door to her bed. When he reached her, Spike looked down at Willow for a moment, so peaceful in sleep. Her red hair was fanned out on the pillow, and she stirred restlessly. Her thin blanket was strewn to one side. Spike smiled, and looked again to make sure they were alone. He pulled the blanket back up to her shoulders, and placed the crimson rose on the blanket. Spike slowly left the dorm, thoughts on a sweet, innocent redhead, all past grievances of a blonde slayer forgotten.  
  
@----- *** @----- *** @-----  
  
Willow turned off her alarm, muttering complaints under her breath. She sat up and groggily rubbed her tired eyes. She spotted the rose after minutes of blinking sleepily, and held it up, wondering. "It couldn't be. How did he know?" Buffy's head popped in the door, and Willow dropped the rose into her lap, smiling guiltily.   
"Ooh. Someone has a secret admirer! Does Tara know about this?" Buffy picked up a pink rose petal, one of the many trailing along the carpet.  
"I don't even know." Willow was surprised at how easily she lied to her best friend, but she had a feeling Buffy would never understand.   
  
@----- *** @----- *** @-----  
  
Tara's eyes filled as she looked unbelievingly at Willow. "Are you breaking up with me?" Willow looked at her sadly.   
"I think so. I'm sorry, Tara, it's just, I kind-of figured something out yesterday, and it wouldn't be fair..." Tara nodded unhappily.   
"I understand. I guess this is goodbye." Tara hugged Willow, and the girl watched her leave forever.   
Willow bit her lip. 'Did I do the right thing?' She decided a walk would help her calm down. Her legs brought her to the crypt. Before Willow knew what she was doing, and more importantly, before her brain could refuse, she opened the door and looked about. Spike was out like she had expected, but Willow was going to wait this time.   
By the time Spike came back from his nightly prowling, Willow was asleep, curled up on his couch. His lips curled into a smile, and he lifted her still form from the couch to his bed, took off his shoes, socks, and shirt, and climbed in after her.   
Willow turned, and opened her eyes the smallest fraction. "Where am I?" She whispered to the form next to her.   
"A bed." Spike groaned. "Go back to sleep." Willow nodded sleepily, and curled up closer to Spike.  
He smiled, even half asleep, and wrapped his arms around her small waist, his lips in her hair.   
  
@----- *** @----- *** @-----  
  
Willow stirred. No sunlight had beamed onto her pillow to wake her, and she felt a little disoriented. She sat up and yawned, jumping as she noticed she was in the crypt. More precisely, she was in Spike's crypt, in his bed. Willow looked down at him, and was about to wake him and ask what had happened, when he burrowed further into the pillow, smiling and muttering about a rose. Willow lay back down, pulled the covers up, and snuggled into Spike's cool embrace. 'Screw school! I happen to be in the arms of a very hot vampire.' Willow grinned as she fell back into sleep.   
  
@----- *** @----- *** @-----  
  
Buffy glared at Anya, who cuddled against Xander sleepily. It was late. Late at night, and she was in one of her moods. She wanted to cuddle with someone, too. It was so unfair. Buffy drew her knees up to her on the chair, and tapped her fingers against the arm of the sofa impatiently. The door opened, and an unkempt Willow hurried in, wearing the clothes she'd had on last night, a duffel flung over her shoulder. "Eew much, Will. What were you thinking this morning?" Buffy griped, surveying the wrinkled outfit.   
"Um, I wore this yesterday? Oh, yes. I must've whoops." Willow blushed, and set her bag down.   
"What is that?" Buffy frowned at the bag.   
"It's clothes. Stuff from my dorm. I'm moving out, cause Tara and I broke up. Don't ask, long story. Anyway, I need clothes at the new place, so yeah. I wanted to just tell you I was ok. See, I was feeling a little sick this morning, so I stayed in bed." Willow faked a little cough for good measure, and grinned weakly.  
"Breathe, Willow." Xander told her, still looking at Anya with sticky sweet sappiness.   
"I'll try to remember that, Xand." Willow muttered sarcastically. "Well, I'm going to go home to bed. I really don't feel very well still." Giles nodded, and wished her good night, nose stuck in an old book or another.   
"Wait. Were are you living?" Buffy asked, sighing hugely and strecthing her toes to the end of the couch.   
Willow tried to come up with a good excuse for not answering, but Buffy turned toward her. Suddenly, the thought of Buffy, completely in patrol outfit attacking her didn't seem to appealing. "At my house. Well, see you all tomorrow." Will took a deep breath after she finally left the shop.   
Spike was only visible by the ember glowing on his lit cigarette. "Did you get it over with?" Willow smiled lightly at him.  
"Not exactly. I kind-of chickened out at the first minute." Spike snuffed out the butt and cornered Willow on a tree, placing on of his hands on either side of her.   
"What are you-" Spike kissed her, leaning down and capturing her face with his hands.   
Willow felt her breath stop, and responded, losing all coherent thought. She didn't hear the door to the magic shop swing open. Spike groaned, and fell, an arrow lodged firmly in his ribcage. "Spike!" Willow cried, kneeling beside him.   
  
@----- *** @----- *** @-----  
  
"What are you doing, Willow?" Buffy's voice was low and dangerous, and she stood on the pavement, crossbow held before her, the rest of the gang behind her.  
"What do you think you're doing? He wasn't hurting anything!" Willow rubbed his cheek with her hand, and whispered comforting things to him as he shifted in pain.   
"I thought he was attacking you." Willow glared at her friend.   
"Did it look like he was attacking me? Can you please leave me alone? I don't need you're help." She aided the injured vampire to his feet, and began shuffling away.   
Buffy stared coldly at her, letting the crossbow drop to her side. "How can she? He'd kill her in a second if it wasn't for that chip." Xander snorted.   
"Just like you and Angel, right? He'd have killed you in a minute if it weren't for that soul. And if you ask me, the soul is the easier of the two to loose." He led Anya beck inside.   
Giles stared after Willow and Spike for a moment, trying to form the right words. "It was different," Buffy began quietly. "Angel wasn't evil."   
"In a sense, Spike is no longer evil as well. I suppose that is the fact allowing Willow to-" Giles cleared his throat, "behave this way."   
"Small comfort, Giles." Buffy looked her last at the retreating couple, and turned away into the shop.   
"Indeed." Giles said to himself, shutting the door and turning the "Open" sign to the other side.  
  
@----- *** @----- *** @-----  
  
"Sorry." Willow sniffed, throwing the arrow pieces into the fire.   
"Not your fault." Spike gritted his teeth against the pain, and looked down at the wound. "Is it a little better yet?" He asked, wincing.   
"It doesn't feel better." Willow bandaged it up tightly.   
"No. Maybe you need- uh, food." Spike nodded toward the fridge.   
Willow tossed him a bag and settled back against the couch, staring at the fire. "I can't believe she doesn't understand. How can she not, of all people?" Spike ripped open the bag, and gulped quickly, trying to save Willow the distaste she must be feeling.   
"She thinks it's an entire different situation. Peaches has a soul, I've got a little bloody piece of metal. She'll never understand, because he's her you know, bloody little wanker, and always will be. I'm just another plague upon the earth." Willow shook her head.   
"But it's the same thing, I mean, it's not like he asked for his, or something. It was a curse, for God sake. He is good now, and so are you. Besides, it's easier to loose a soul." Spike laughed.   
"Much easier." Spike added as an afterthought, "Not for lack of trying, though." Willow looked at him quickly.   
"You still want to be evil?" Spike thought for a moment.  
"Red, it is what I am. I'm a demon with a shock collar on. Without the pain, I'd be-" Willow's tight-lipped expression and pale face stopped him for continuing.   
"But as far as I can tell, I'm going to be stuck with this damn thing for the rest of my unlife, so why not enjoy it?" Willow smiled brightly.   
"I guess you're right." She climbed, rather clumsily, into his lap, and all thoughts of chips and arrows were forgotten.   
  
THE END... OR IS IT?   



	2. Overcoming Obstacles

Title: Overcoming Obstacles (Companion piece to "Roses")  
Summary: Spike and Willow are together. Love conquers everything, right? Buffy sets out to prove this theory wrong.  
Archive: Want it?   
Disclaimer: Not mine. I only own pathetic plots.  
Comments: kimmie@quincymail.com  
Rating: A tame G. I'm not talented enough to write anything but the fluffy stuff.  
  
  
  
  
Buffy slammed the phone down into the receiver, the table shaking with her effort. Dawn looked up at her, half in anger at being pulled from her book, half in shock. "What was that about?" Buffy glared at her sister, her rage hardly under control.   
"Xander tells me Willow is moving into the crypt." Dawn shrugged.   
"Big deal. I moved into the crypt with mom that time, remember? Nothing to get worked up over." She buried her nose in the covers of the magic text again.   
"That was for protection. This is for kicks. Has she completely lost her mind? What's gotten into Will?"   
"You dated a vampire, too, Buffy. How is this different?" Dawn asked, glancing up from the book again.   
"Angel has a soul! Our situations are worlds apart, Dawn!" She screamed, balling her hands into fists. "I've got to try to talk to her, reason has to work, right?"   
  
"Reason is not going to work, Buffy! I've already thought this through, and believe me, it is what I want!" Willow cried, throwing her last suitcase onto the bed.  
Spike grinned at the Slayer easily from his corner. Willow hauled her things to a drawer, pointedly ignoring Buffy's glare of death. (c) "So you're just going to move in with evil? Fight with good and live the lie? Why? How can you even pretend he loves you?" Buffy's helpless look only angered Willow more.  
"How was Angel any different? Why can you make excuses for yourself, but exclude my circumstance, and make me guilty?" Buffy's mouth dropped open.   
"Excuse me? Soul, chip. Two entirely different things! Angel is good, he has a heart, he loves me. Spike is evil! He doesn't want that chip, and without it, you'd be a fading memory!" Willow took that blow to heart, her eyes filling at her friend's betrayal.   
"He loves me, Buffy. That's enough to keep me trying to help him!" Buffy's mouth flew open in protest.   
"How can he love you? Love is something he'll never know, Willow. Please just think this over, one-day, one-week! Come back to your dorm, and-"  
"And what? Tara and I are over, and I want to be here, Buffy. I'm sorry you can't understand that, even after Angel." Buffy clenched her fists at her sides and glared at the two of them.   
"Don't ever try to tell me that what Angel and I had is anything like this affliction of a relationship. We had something bigger than you can understand, obviously, if you think Spike is anything like my Angel. Don't even start on it." Buffy's eyes filled with tears of rage, and she stormed to Spike.   
"If I ever hear about you hurting her, I swear I'll tear your body into tiny shreds and keep them around to dance on. May your life be filled with sunshine, holy water, and sharp wood." She sneered, pushing him into the wall before looking back one last time.   
Willow helped Spike up, tears dripping from her eyes. "I thought she might understand. Just maybe, I thought it would hit her as being like- but she just hates everything about you. Why can't she see the good?"   
"You are my good. Slayer doesn't realize that, so she'll be in the dark." Spike said easily. "Red? You all right?"  
"Some of the stuff she said, it just bothered me." Spike frowned, dusting off his black jeans.   
"Taking the Slayer's garble to heart? Which part? The part about me not being Angel, or the part about love and all that jazz?"   
"I know you're not Angel. Angel is too much like me for my taste, and I just wonder how someone like you and someone like me... It just seems so out there. We're so different." Spike laughed.   
"What's wrong with a little spice in a relationship? That's what it's all about, love." Willow smiled lightly at the blonde vampire that sat next to her on the bed.  
"I know, and I wouldn't change you if I could. Do you love me?" Spike moved his head to look at her.  
"What? Where did this come from? Or do I have to ask, love?"   
"I know I'm stupid to even suddenly wonder because of Buffy, but it does matter." Willow regarded him with big eyes.   
"Love isn't something vampires have a lot of, but I know that what ever I feel about you, I've got a lot of it." Willow's face melted into a smile, and she turned around in his lap, capturing his mouth with hers.   
  
  



End file.
